On Wednesday, Emily and I had our field trip for Story of the City with our fantastic teacher, Simon Young. We took an external field trip to the Duomo and Campanile (the Tower at the Duomo). We went into the basement of the Duomo, which I honestly didn't know existed. Here, we were able to the see the original structure of the cathedral, as well the the foundation and floorplan. It was actually pretty interesting.
After that, the real field trip began. We left the Duomo to go next door to the Campanile. For those of you that don't know, the Tower has 414 steps. And yes, Emily and I tried desperately to be the caboose so we wouldn't feel rushed (and to avoid passing out). However, Simon wouldn't budge and put us in the middle of our class to climb this huge steep tower. Well, after the first 30 stairs, I honestly thought I was going to need an inhaler. The steps were extremely steep and didn't leave room for error. Good thing Emily and Ann were behind to catch me...or so I'd hope!
Anyway, it took us around twenty minutes to fully climb all 414 steps. Worth it? Definitely. Would I do it again? Definitely, but after a month of recovery. The view from the tip-top of Campanile was absolutely amazing.
We were able to see for miles, though through a haze that hovered above the city. It was the perfect time of day to go too, just around 4:00pm so that the sun was beginning to set. Honestly, this was definitely my favorite part of this class to date.
I also realized that I AM learning something from this class, as I was able to distinguish many important landmarks and iconic buildings throughout our home of Florence. I can't believe we live here. Five weeks into our program, and it's still surreal.
Anyways, so we wandered around the top of Campanile for a bit, took a few pictures here and there (one of course, with the wonderful Simon), and made the journey back to Piazza del Duomo.
Later that evening, another class field trip. This one...Apertivos, which is the Italian snacks & drinks. It's a wonderful idea that I plan on participating in while here and in the States. So Annie, Amanda, Allie, Emily, and I went to meet our class at the bar. This would never happen in America... I love it! The night was extremely fun and entertaining. We had two Italian students from University come to chat with us about their culture and ours. Each student ordered one drink...I tried a Daiquiri, which turned out to be ridiculously strong and nothing that my tastebuds could recognize. Fail. The appetizer-like snacks were delicious, though. We nibbled on crustini, french fries, potatoes, and veggies. All-in-all, a very pleasant time.
THURSDAY: Classes in the morning, exam in Italian. It went well, I hope (we're still waiting for them to be returned). Then I packed up for London and was off to the Pisa airport with Ari, Allie, Annie, and Amanda (who sadly left us for Paris).
Check-in went smoothly and we even made friends with a nice British couple while waiting in the horrendously unorganized RyanAir boarding line. I'll be honest, I was slightly nervous to fly RyanAir after all of the rumors that spread around. Granted, after our flight, I'm still nervous. The four of us sat in the very last row, which apparently is the most susceptible to turbulence. We felt it. We questioned our pilot's capabilities. We laughed and cried. (Kinda joking, kinda serious). Two hours later, we arrived in England! A passport stamp later and we were on the bus to London.
We got dropped off at the Liverpool St. station and easily figured out the Tube (London's subway system) to get to our hostel, near London Bridge. We checked in around midnight and met some of Allie's friends for a quick bite. Got a beautiful view of the Tower Bridge (which is actually commonly mistaken for London Bridge). Then bedtime for us sleepy-heads.
FRIDAY: We were up bright and early. What to do first in London? Of course, buy tickets to a show in the West End (similar to NYC Broadway). After finding out that Billy Elliot isn't discounted on Friday's (just our luck!), we rashly decided on Dirty Dancing. We liked the movie, the show must be decent. Right? Hmm. After that, we hustled over to Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guards.
I was slightly disappointed with the Palace, as it wasn't impressive from the outside. Perhaps, the inside is more beautifully decorated? We stayed and watched the ceremony, which was alright in my opinion. I suppose it's a "must-see" for London.
Afterwards, we saw Big Ben and the House of Parliament and the London Eye. We ended up purchasing tickets for those double-decker bus tours. We rode around looking at iconic British buildings and monuments for an hour or two. Eventually, we got off of the bus to find some fish & chips. We stumbled onto Sherlock Holmes and feasted! I love fish & chips!
Afterwards, we wandered around some more, eventually landing at the British Museum. It was actually very interesting inside. The building itself is magnificent, simply just the entranceway. Also, this museum houses the Rosetta Stone, which is impressive in itself. We walked through the North Americas and eventually though Egypt and Africa. Mummies never cease to amaze me. My favorite part of the museum, however, was an exhibit about drug-use and coping, differences between a man and woman prescription use. There were personal family photos bordering the surreal pill display. It was powerful.
After the Museum, tried to visit Hyde Park to see the Peter Pan statue and the Princess Di Memorial. Unfortunately, it was after dark and the park was closed. Somehow we were able to get in to take a few pictures. We realized it was useless - it was too dark and we had no clue where we were going. We left Hyde Park to visit Harrod's and Top Shop.
Wow. Harrod's is absolutely ridiculous. There were way too many levels and rooms with expensive goodies to see everything. I did see the Princess Diana tribute and the candy shops! Then we all went to grab a quick bite before Dirty Dancing.
We met up with Allie's friend, Kevin, and the five of us went to find our seats. For less than 30 GBP, we had great seats. We were front row center of the second level, granted it was a small theatre. So, the show was entertaining to say the least. It wasn't what I expected at all. I thought we were seeing a musical but it literally was just a live movie, identical to the Dirty Dancing movie that I love. It was bizarre that only three characters sang, none of which were main characters. The dancing was fantastic however. A nice girls' night out in London (plus Kevin, of course).
SATURDAY: After a few hostel scares, for reasons that aren't necessary to post online, the four of us booked it out as quickly as possible. We took the Tube to St. Paul's Cathedral to try their infamous scones.
I decided, try as I might, that I don't like scones. Sorry, England...not your best. The jam was delicious though! After St. Paul's, we made our way across the "Wobbly Bridge" to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre.
After a quick photo op, we stumbled across the Tate Museum of Modern Art. We ventured inside and were confused with what we found. I'm not sure how I feel about modern art, because it doesn't seem very skilled to me. We went through a couple exhibits - some more disturbing than others - and left.
A Tube stop later and we were near Big Ben again ready for our river boat tour. While waiting in line, a little girl decided it would be fun to feed all of the seagull's her lunch that mum had packed. She kept feeding them and they kept swarming. Some things I just don't understand. Good thing our boat came and we avoided any unfortunate "accidents."
The boat tour was a lot of fun, even though Allie slept through most of it. We went past the London Eye, London Bridge, Women's Bridge, and finally got off at London Tower.
We walked near the Tower, but didn't have time to go inside, so I'll save that for my next trip to London.
We grabbed lunch with some of my roommates' friends in London. I wanted to try something very typical of the culture so I decided on "bangers and mash."
After lunch, we said our goodbyes, hopped on a bus, and made the 1+ hour trek back to Stansted Airport. Check-in and security a breeze, we had an hour to spare. What else to do? Use all of our pounds and pence buying...chocolate! The plane ride home was less stressful, probably because we got our pick of seats seeing as Allie was the first one in the boarding line (after throwing an old woman down the escalator and tripping the elderly, I'm sure). Either way, we sat near each other and, some of us, *cough, cough, Annie* even made a BFF. We arrived home in Italy around 11pm. Unfortunately, the trains to Florence weren't running for a few hours so we paid the extra money and took a bus back to Florence.
The four of us finally settled into our apartment around 1:30am, exhausted but happy. London was wonderful, although I wouldn't wish to study abroad there. It's too comfortable and similar to NYC. I like the challenge of completely immersing myself in a foreign city. Although, for London being notorious for it's rainy weather, we ended up with lots of sunshine. Lucky us :)
SUNDAY: I thought I would sleep in because I didn't set an alarm but I woke up at 11am. It was a lazy day, but some-what productive filling out applications for various things. Didn't so much else besides lay around and go to the grocery store for some juice. I definitely need to get to the Central Market soon, very soon.
MONDAY: Happy Valentine's Day! Yesterday was just filled with classes until 1:30. I tried a new sandwich from my favorite panino ladies: salmone, rocket, e limone/olio. It was delicious. A skype date and a nap later, I was having a terrific day. The roommates and I decided to go out and treat ourselves for Valentine's Dinner, so we ended up trying a Mexican restaurant, Tijuana. We all had sangria and tortilla chips, and for my dinner, a burrito. Yum!
After dinner, we tried for gelato but the one near our apartment was closed. The shops close randomly and without warning so you'll never know when something is open or not. That I will never get used to. Some more Skype dating and some homework later, my Valentine's Day was over. It was the best one yet, surprisngly, although I'm so far from so many friends and family. However, it didn't matter and I fell asleep extremely happy because I'm so lucky to have such wonderful people in my lives.
TODAY! (Finally): After falsely waking up at 7:30am to Emily going to sleep (crazy girl), I woke up again at 8:30 for art history. With that class over, Diana and I came back here for a quick napskis in between classes. Italian up next and still no exams back, I was disappointed. I had a lunch just like yesterday, except added in some mozzarella. Even better.
I'm not entirely sure how it's already 7:30pm here but time flies over here. One good thing: the cleaning ladies came to our apartment today and our apartment feels a lot better! We'll have cleaning ladies come once a month while living here. How nice! They motivated me to clean, so I even did a load of laundry. With homework done and my stomach beginning to rumble, it's time to decide on dinner.
I will try my best to keep updating but the busier I get, the more difficult it is. Fun fact: I have all of my trips booked for the semester! Coming up: Amsterdam this weekend, Interlaken the next!
Ciao a tutti!
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